Malvinas 1982

Chapter 1 - Set Sail

It was March 30th. I was in Puerto Belgrano for at least three weeks now. I was listening to the leader, Leopoldo Galtieri speaking at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires City. He spoke how were going to secure Las Malvinas by fighting for it. He stated: "If they want to come, let them come. We will present battle to them!" After he said that, the crowd in front of the Casa Rosada was cheering on. I started to realize, were going to fight Britain soon. Maybe in a couple of days. As soon as the broadcast ended, a shout was heard. It was our Sergeant. "GET UP AND HEAD OUT. REAR ADMIRAL BÜSSER WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS US." He yelled. Address us? I would wonder what it could be. Would it be an military exercise? Could it have possibly been something about what I just watched on the television? I had to wait and see what the Rear Admiral
wanted to say. Myself and 24 other marines had marched out of our barracks. We lined up in rows to watch the Rear Admiral. What he had to say, surprised me.
"Soon, we will depart and head towards Las Malvinas on orders of General Galtieri. Start preparing and get on those ships."
All 550 of us, prepared ourselves. I took my FAL Rifle along with personal items I had. Before we boarded, we all had to check if we were stocked on supplies. I was not so I had to collect 7.62x51mm ammunition. I headed back to board. The ship I was boarding was Destroyer ARA Santísima Trinidad. According to a map I looked at, the length of our journey was 1,600 kilometers. That was double the length between Puerto Belgrano and home. I shrugged it off. A couple days at sea, nothing to be afraid of, right? About 2 hours of waiting, Rear Admiral Büsser gave the go-ahead signal to start departing and head onwards to Las Malvinas. The ship started moving. As I walked on deck to see us moving away from land, I saw people on the beaches waving at us. Of course, I waved back with my comrades. We were on our way to take back what was ours. I headed back inside to play cards with some fellow marines. I betted about 100,000 pesos. At the time, inflation was high at around 1000% so it would be around 100 United States Dollars. After series of rounds of cards, I won, earning triple of the amount I betted on. 300,000 pesos. I decided to sent this money back home. I don't need it since, well, were in open ocean. I  headed to the small bunks we had. I headed to sleep to rest. Tomorrow must be a big day.